Pearl Harbor’s USS Arizona Memorial is closed indefinitely for repairs
The USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, one of Hawaii’s most popular tourist attractions, has been closed indefinitely for repairs.
“Boat transportation to the USS Arizona Memorial is temporarily suspended until further notice, due to a recently detected crack in the supporting structure for the visitor loading ramp,” according to a National Park Service statement on Facebook.
Meanwhile, the National Park Service and U.S. Navy are operating free boat tours of Pearl Harbor that pass close to the sunken battleship, where nearly 1,200 crew members are entombed.
Free tour tickets are available at the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center on a first-come, first-served basis beginning at 7 Hawaii Standard Time each morning.
The floating memorial closed May 27. It follows two previous suspensions of tours because of safety concerns.
The first, in May 2015, occurred when the Navy hospital ship Mercy struck the memorial’s dock and damaged it.
The memorial briefly closed again for repairs earlier this month because of concerns about the loading ramp.
It is unknown how long the memorial, which sits atop the battleship sunk by Japanese forces on Dec. 7, 1941, will be off limits. The Arizona Memorial, built in 1962, welcomes 1.8 million visitors each year and is part of the Valor in the Pacific National Monument.
All other attractions at Pearl Harbor — including the submarine Bowfin submarine, the battleship Missouri and the Pacific Aviation Museum are unaffected and operating normally.
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